Field of the Invention
Significant advances have been made in alternative energy systems as society seeks to ameliorate the deleterious effects inherent in legacy energy systems. Fossil fuel systems rely on the combustion of hydrocarbons such as ethane, n-pentane, methane, n-octane, and coal, which, under perfect conditions, will produce heat and kinetic energy and the by-products of water and carbon dioxide. As an example, the combustion of methane in the presence of air is stoichiometric asCH4+2(O2+3.76N2)→CO2+2H2O+7.52N2 
An array of hydrocarbons that are the constituents of gasoline (a well-known example is n-octane), as well as the hydrocarbons associated with coal and fuel oil, all burn in a similar fashion. Automobile engines rely on the Carnot cycle and gas turbines, powering jet aircraft and marine propulsion, rely on the Brayton cycle to harness, through a mechanical arrangement, the rapid gas expansion of the burning fuel to develop continuous shaft horsepower.
Commercial electric power is produced when coal or fuel oil is burned to boil water, the steam being used to turn a turbine as per the Rankine cycle, producing a continuous shaft horsepower. Nuclear electric power generation utilizes a controlled nuclear fission of uranium and it's byproducts as a heat source to boil water, and similarly, develops a continuous shaft horsepower from a steam turbine. In both cases, the continuous shaft horsepower is used to rotate an electric generator.
The problems associated with our legacy systems dominate our technological, economic, strategic, scientific, and geopolitical landscapes. An energy hungry world seeks to control the world's precious hydrocarbon resources resulting in “blood for oil” military conflicts which themselves carry a risk of escalation to a global scope, raising the terrible specter of exchanged nuclear strikes between states equipped with atomic weapons.
According to the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) the use of hydrocarbons as a fuel, even under perfect conditions, emits carbon dioxide as a byproduct, which as a “greenhouse gas” is implicated in global warming;’ Rarely are the conditions perfect however, and the burning of hydrocarbon emits many unfortunate byproducts which otherwise pollute the air, causing serious human health problems.
According to the US Department of Energy nuclear electric power generation has the advantage that it emits no greenhouse gases. There are, however, a number of thorny problems associated with nuclear power. The mining, refining, and processing of uranium ore into a useable material, is an environmentally costly process with associated health risks.2 The operation of nuclear power stations is not foolproof as the disasters at Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima, demonstrate. The operation of nuclear power reactors produces a plethora of fission products associated with the spent nuclear fuel. Nuclear waste disposal involves the processing, transportation, and storage of these fission products. This presents an ongoing national problem involving challenging technological, scientific, strategic, and political issues. Moreover, spent nuclear fuel presents a security risk, as the proliferation of fissile materials can present opportunities to “rogue states” to obtain weapons grade nuclear materials.
The development and deployment of alternative energy systems beyond the legacy systems has the potential to alleviate many of the above problems. Light energy from the Sun striking the Earth is a far greater potential source of energy than all of the world's proven oil reserves. But new challenges arise due to the nature of the alternative systems.
Many of the alternative energy systems are not continuous systems but are time-varying as they only generate power when the alternative energy source is available. Solar powered photovoltaic cells produce appreciable power only when sufficient sunshine is available. Wind generators produce power only when the wind is blowing. Tidal water systems generate energy only when the water is moving, etc. This non-continuous, or periodic power harvesting technology requires massive energy storage systems to transform the periodic energy pulses to a quasi-continuous system to meet society's demand.
Description of Related Art
Each of the periodic alternative energy systems rely on an energy storage system to capture the excess energy and deliver it when required. A typical alternative energy system will generate electrical energy. Solar photovoltaic cells, wind generators, tidal and wave generators will use batteries and a battery charging system to store excess electrical energy. When required, the batteries will be switched from charging mode into discharging mode to apply the stored electrical energy. The delivered electrical energy is in the form of Direct Current (DC) electrical energy and may require the use of DC to DC converters and DC to AC (Alternating Current) inverters to deliver the stored energy in a form that is directly usable.
These periodic alternative energy systems then, rely on the added complexity and expenses related to energy conversion and chemical battery storage technologies. Chemical Batteries suffer from low energy/power density, poor low-temperature performance, limited cycle life, intrinsic safety limitations, and high cost.
Au important consideration in any energy conversion technology is the efficiency of the system which describes the losses inherent in the conversion. Lead acid batteries are commonly used in small photo voltaic systems. Sandia National Laboratories studied lead acid battery efficiencies and found that efficiencies are as low as 50% if the battery is at a high rate of charge when charging begins. A Study of Lead-Acid Battery Efficiency Near Top-of-Charge and the Impact on PV System Design by John W. Stevens and Garth P. Corey. Also, partial charging is deleterious to the battery itself:
This result has important implications to operational PV systems. That is, if a battery is partially charged for several consecutive cycles (for example, the array is marginally sized and there is a series of less than full sun days in the winter) the useable battery capacity decreases each cycle, even though the same amount of energy has been presented to the battery each day. This is the result of battery inefficiencies, electrolyte stratification, and sulfate buildup during these partial charges.
Thus, time-varying alternative energy systems rely upon a storage technology which is inherently inefficient and problematical from an operational, financial, and design standpoint. What is required is an alternative energy storage system that does not require batteries. The Gravity Field Energy Storage & Recovery System Invention is designed to deliver this alternative solution.